Church Pokemon Go player in Russia faces years in jail A blogger admits he maybe "an idiot", but says he is "in shock" over the threat of jail that he branded "the doorway to hell". 14:17, UK, Friday 28 April 2017 Image: Ruslan Sokolovsky was filmed using the app inside a Russian Orthodox church Russian prosecutors have said a blogger arrested for playing Pokemon Go in a church should serve more than three years in jail. Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, was filmed using the augmented reality app inside the Church of All Sa

  Russian prosecutors requested a 3? year prison sentence Friday for a blogger charged with inciting religious hatred for playing "Pokemon Go" in a church. Prosecutors made the request as the trial of Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, wrapped up in the city of Yekaterinburg. A judge said a verdict in the case would be issued May 11. Sokolovsky posted a video on his blog showing him playing the smartphone game in a church built on the supposed spot where the last Russian tsar and his family were killed. He has been in detention since October. He is charged with inciting religious hatred. It is the same offense that sent two women from the Pussy Riot punk collective to prison for two years in 2012. "Honestly, I'm really in shock that the state prosecutors asked for 3 ? years," particularly because it wasn't a violent offense, Sokolovsky was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. He said he is studying and working and could lose everythin

  Pick up a download code for three Pokemon cards with a qualifying purchase at Barnes & Noble. Add Celebi, Sandygast, and Palossand to your Pokémon TCG Online collection with any Pokémon TCG purchase of $11.95 or more at Barnes & Noble. When you do, you'll receive a special code card to unlock the powerful Celebi , as well as the Evolution chain of Sandygast and Palossand . Plus, you'll unlock in-game card sleeves featuring Pokémon from the Sun & Moon expansion. Visit your local participating Barnes & Noble for more details.

Retailers who host official Play! Pokémon Prerelease tournaments will be able to sell the new Pokémon TCG expansion on the Monday before the launch date. Starting with the Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion, stores in the United States and Canada that host Play! Pokémon Prerelease tournaments will be allowed to sell products on the Monday before the official release date. The launch date for the Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising expansion is Friday, May 5, so these stores can begin selling booster packs, theme decks, and other Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising products on Monday, May 1.

Pinned Tweet Pokémon GO News ‏   @ PokemonGoNews 8 Dec 2016 Hey, Trainers! Follow → @ NinSwitchNews if you want the latest news on Nintendo's Switch! Eight Decks to Watch For at Latin American Internationals The 2017 Pokémon TCG Play! Pokémon Championship Series season rolls on as São Paulo, Brazil, hosts the Latin American International Championships ! Players from all over the world will gather in São Paulo, eager to earn major Championship Points and other big prizes on the road to the 2017 Pokémon World Championships in Anaheim, California, in August. Not much time has passed since the Oceania International Championships , but the metagame has completely transformed since the

A ton of new Pokemon merchandise featuring Ash's Pikachu is hitting Pokemon Center stores in Japan to promote the next Pokemon movie. A wave of merchandise featuring Pikachu wearing Ash's original baseball cap was released earlier this week, featuring everything from plushes to stationary to keychains. The new movie will focus on Ash and Pikachu's relationship, as the two search for the Legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh. Ash and Pikachu first encountered Ho-Oh in the very first episode of the anime, and the new movie seems to finally follow up on this iconic moment. The movie seems to take place sometime in Ash's past, as he's sporting his original outfit albeit with an updated hat design. Trailers have also suggested that Ash's Butterfree and Charizard will also make appearances in the new movie, which would be the first time either of those Pokemon have been seen in years (or decades, in Butterfree's case.) Some of the more popular movie items inc

Earlier this week, Niantic employees confirmed they were working on a " huge event " for summer 2017 - something that would involve a new game mechanic. While the employees didn't give many details about the event, they hinted that it could have something to do with one of the features we saw in  Pokemon  Go 's teaser trailer back in October 2015 that still haven't been implemented yet. Summer is still a few months away, but that doesn't mean we can't speculate as to what this huge event could be. Here's a few of our best guesses as to what's coming next to  Pokemon Go : Previous Slide 1/4 Next Legendary Pokemon If we had only one guess what the summer's big event is, we'd guess that Legendary Pokemon were finally coming to  Pokemon Go . Legendary Pokemon have been a hot topic for  Pokemon Go  players upon the game's release, although Niantic promised it wouldn't release any super-

Although  Pokemon Go 's Easter Eggstravaganza is over, fans have discovered a major change to one of the game's core mechanics. It appears that wild Pokemon's stats are now randomized for each player. Basically, multiple players can catch the same Pokemon at the same place at the same time, but discover that the Pokemon's movesets and IVs (secret stats that determine a Pokemon's relative strength compared to other Pokemon of the same species) are different for each player. Before the Easter event, multiple players could encounter and catch the same Pokemon in the wild. If two players encountered the same Pokemon, the Pokemon would have identical stats and movesets (save for CP) no matter what level the two players were. Now, it appears that IVs and movesets are determined based on level and are only determined when a player encounters a Pokemon to try to catch it. There are some limitations to the new spawning mechanic. The randomization only s

Pokemon Go' s Eggstravaganza is underway, giving players to collect special 2 KM eggs that hatch rare Pokemon. Most of the special Eggstravaganza eggs have Pokemon that typically hatch from 10 KM eggs, but we've learned that some players are still getting 5 KM and 10 KMs eggs as well. So what Pokemon can you get from 2 KMs from the event? Well, players from /r/TheSilphRoad, a reddit community of Pokemon Go fans, have compiled a pretty comprehensive list of all the Pokemon they've hatched during the event's opening hours. While these Pokemon are all hatching from 2 KM eggs during this week, be warned that players are also still hatching 2 KM Pokemon from those eggs too. Here's the complete list: Aerodactyl Dunsparce Eevee Elekid Girafarig Grimer Growlithe Kofffing Lapras Larvitar Lickitung Magby Miltank Onix Phanphy Rhyhorn Scyther Shellder Shuckle Skarmory Smoochum Sneasel Stantler Sudowoodo Tang

The Pokemon franchise had a pretty good 2016, as it brought in over $3.3 billion in retail sales. License Global reported that the Pokemon Company's 2016 retail sales figures were up over $1.2 billion dollars from 2015, a nearly 57% gain. Those retail sales include both the video games and the massive amount of merchandise featured in stores. There's a few reasons for Pokemon's massive spike. The franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary in style, with a Super Bowl commercial, two new video games, and a ton of new merchandise. Pokemon Go also brought in a ton of new and lapsed fans to the franchise. While the Pokemon Company didn't see all the revenue from Pokemon Go, (the game is jointly owned by Nintendo, the Pokemon Company, Niantic, and Google) the game still had a massive effect in drawing people into the wider world of the game. That $3.3 billion figure also included the still-popular Pokemon Trading Card Game . License Global noted that o

(Photo: Nintendo) Earlier this year,  Pokemon Go  developers promised several "major updates" to the game, which would add new features and possibly even new Pokemon. Although we knew that we were getting a new "major update" for each quarter of 2017, a new interview has given hints that something even bigger is coming later this year. In an interview with the Japanese website K-Tai Watch , several Niantic officials confirmed that they were working on a "major event" for summer 2017. While the officials didn't give much details about the event, they hinted that it would feature one of the mechanics seen in  Pokemon Go 's release trailer last year that haven't yet been added to the game. Those mechanics include PvP battles, massive "raids" in which hundreds of battles work together to fight a powerful Pokemon, and trading. While they didn't give specifics about the event, the Niantic employees confirmed that the

The latest episode of Pokemon Sun and Moon: The Series that aired today in Japan had a surprising shoutout to two of Ash's oldest friends. The episode showed Ash and his current companions going to see a concert hosted by a local DJ and his Alolan Dugtrio. Team Rocket is also at the concert, trying to sell wigs to concertgoers. Although wigs featuring the blonde hairstyles of the Alolan Dugtrio are popular purchases, Team Rocket's knockoff wigs fail to attract any buyers. However, Team Rocket's booth does feature a big Easter egg for fans. Two of the wigs for sale look based off of Brock and May's hair designs. Brock was Ash's most frequent travel companion, although the pair separated in 2013 so Brock could become a Pokemon Doctor. May was one of Ash's companions in the Hoenn region and last made a brief appearance back in 2008 in a Pokemon Contest tournament in the Sinnoh region. As you can see below, several other characters from the anime wer

Some people like to dress up as the Easter bunny and surprise their children on Easter. Makes sense, right? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson decided to kick things up a notch by disguising himself as Pikachu because, apparently, that's his daughter Jasmine's favorite character. Watch the adorable scene play out right here: "Well, Pikachu didn't account for the fact that now Jazzy RUNS and for 2hrs straight she wants to play her new favorite game, 'I run away and you chase me Pikachu. And you're not allowed to take a break until I go night night.' At the end of the vid you can hear her yell, 'Peekyu' because she can't say, Pikachu. "I'm tired, today's my only day off, it's 118 degrees in this costume and Hobbs keep trying to p*ss on my leg. And I luv every minute of it. Bring it on. It's what daddy's do.  Happy Easter to you guys and enjoy your families." I don't care what you happe

          The new Pokemon anime is finally hitting stateside. Disney XD will begin airing new episodes of Pokemon Sun and Moon : The Series on May 13th, beginning with the third episode "Loading the Dex." The fourth episode, "First Catch in Alola, Ketchum-style!" will air on Sunday May 14th. Presumably, new episodes will follow every Saturday and Sunday mornings thereafter. For those who missed the first two episodes of Pokemon Sun and Moon, Disney XD will air those episodes on May 12th. Disney first announced it had obtained the rights to all 18 seasons of the Pokemon anime last year and aired a mini-marathon in November that featured the first two episodes of the new Pokemon Sun and Moon series as well as the latest Pokemon movie Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel . However, Disney ha

0:00 / 0:29 CLICK TO PLAY WATCH NEXT Samsung uses gigantic phone model to showcase the CHECK OUT THE LATEST POKEMON GO! UPDATE 30 Easter is a time for eggs - and that hasn't escaped the notice of Niantic Labs, creators of the hit  mobile game Pokémon Go  . The company is hotly tipped to launch a special Easter Event that looks likely to kick off tomorrow. Like previous Valentine's Day and Thanksgiving events, the Easter event will  last for a week and give players a handy boost  . They will receive double the XP and, of course, a better chance of hatching a rare Pokémon from one of their eggs. READ MORE Pokémon coming to the Nintendo Switch? Mysterious job listing sends gamers crazy Pokemon Go   (Photo: Getty) Have your say on this story Comment Below The likes of Snorlax and Lapras can be hatched from eggs that require players to walk a specific distance whil